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It sounds like Classical Conversations is more supportive of concurrent enrollment than Dual Enrollment. Is that true?

When talking about college credits for our high school Challenge students, we are often asked to explain the difference between dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment. There is also some confusion about how these models work. We are also asked why we prefer one model over the other. We prefer the Classical Conversations Plus concurrent credit program because it honors our Challenge programs and allows parents to remain the students’ primary mentors and teachers while the student earns college credit.

Though attending college is just one of several post-high school options, it is certainly the most well-known. Pursing a college degree captures our attention because it involves a set of compelling possibilities mixed with demanding standards, requirements, and costs. In this article, rather than looking at the various virtues and vices of college, we parse five paths to college, and then suggest another possibility: entrepreneurship.

I, along with the majority of classically educating homeschool parents, received a modern education in public K-12 schools. Most of us are making the choice to provide our children with an unknown yet compelling classical Christian education. We are together in a crucible of modern culture using classical tools. What has surprised me as a child of God, husband, and father is how classical education has overtaken my own spirit, mind, and emotions. I am discovering that this education is not just for my children.

Classical education has deepened and expanded my spiritual life. It began during a call with a Classical Conversations team leader over a year ago. She shared this: “My husband and I are starting a Bible study on Sundays using the classical tools of grammar, dialectic and rhetoric.” My mind raced: “What? You can do that? You can use these tools for Bible study?” During church now I regularly use a digital Bible app so that alongside the English scripture I see the original Hebrew (Old Testament passages) or Greek (New Testament passages) so that I can catch alternate meanings of words. Using this tool alongside classical tools like the five common topics, I have begun to make connections between original texts and started to have a richer experience of reading the Bible. Now I regularly discover insights based on even a limited understanding of Hebrew and Greek, and am able to contribute these during our Bible study discussions. Grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric are developing in my spirit in this way.

By now you have learned of new ways to earn college credits while enrolled in Classical Conversations Challenge II, III and IV. Should your family pursue credits? If so, which credits? Which courses?

While I typically avoid writing disclaimers, we need to put one here: every family is different, which makes giving general guidance impractical. You can choose these opportunities for your advantage, and you can decline them as well. Only you know your situation best. Personalized services, mentoring, and a place with many Counselors are all offered through Homeschool Counselor. Now on with the answers we can give.

“Education as paideia is not preparation for life, for college, or for work; it is our inherited means of living fully in the present, while we grow in wisdom and in grace, in conscience and in style, entering gradually into ‘the good life.‘”1

My summer Parent Practicum just ended. On the last day, testimonies hailed how Classical Conversations changed families’ lives. The classical curricula fashioned finer homeschooling and the Christian emphasis complimented the home environment. Many emphasized how the community came alongside in various struggles and made them easier to bear.

These tales surpassed mere descriptions about classical education with Biblical ideals. They encompassed more than homeschooling techniques or the blessings of supportive friends. They tapped into our longing for something more. Through the stories, this longing kept surfacing, with glimpses, hopes, and desires for something more…but, longing for more of what?

Include emotional appeals with the logic that goes with the benefits of homeschool. In your position as “daughter,” or “son,” you have a unique position to appeal to your mom and dad’s emotions. Get to the logic later.

This Thanksgiving marks another occasion when our family will spend the day with five other homeschooling families. We spent last year’s T-day together; we will again tomorrow. I am looking forward to the day. Nothing substitutes for immediate relatives of course. These days with dispersed relatives, other opportunities become available, like spending a special holiday with families we see weekly with schooling.

The winds are currently calm outside as I sit at my desk but the cloud bands from an approaching hurricane have already begun to block the sun. The storm is inevitable. We have prayed and made preparations but that will not keep the gusts from beating our house as the circular monster kisses our coast sometime before dawn tomorrow. Homeschooling high school can sometimes feel like a hurricane. As our students approach middle school, we can feel the panic rising in our throats. We have so many questions and we doubt the adequacy of our preparations. After sailing these waters with our three young adults, the three anchors of diligent prayer, intentional preparation and joyful pondering, kept us grounded as the winds blew our little homeschooling boat.

When I walked into my house, Leigh Bortins was already standing in the dining room talking to my wife; interrupting herself in the middle of her own conversation she asked, “Is it ok if I dump a load of laundry in your washer?” She was traveling in Southern California to help jump start Classical Conversations on the west coast. Our little Long Beach campus was about to be the first one in the Golden State.